ABSTRACT
Approximately 75 per cent of Europe's population lives in urban environments and a quarter of the EU's land surface has been directly affected by urbanization. This type of land use change affects environmental resources, and thus the quality of human life is dependent on the capacity to govern the process of urbanization. Moreover, soil scientists and ecologists attribute land take to planning weakness and then planners turn accusations to politics. The use of ecosystem service (ES) as a central element for the re-definition of land use regulation seems to be the way to overcome national/regional quantitative policies of reduction with 'in-depth' qualitative support for decision-making processes. The goal of reducing land take with an integrative approach between analysis and policies of local land regulation, for example, has to better consider the role of Strategic Environmental Assessment.
